Don't have coverage? - We have you covered!

07-12-2015 – Ivana Milanovic.

In today’s modern world we believe that offline should be a natural part of an application. That is why we have built in offline by default in our apps. As a user you should not have to think about where you are and whether or not you have an internet connection or not. You just want to be able to perform your work.

Any system based on just a relational database becomes difficult to run offline, since the offline approach relies on data replications. When the number of users increases (even at modest numbers, for example tens of users) the risk of data conflicts becomes almost a certainty. This results in large overhead in back office functions that need to work with data conflict resolution.

Our offline functionality is not based on traditional database replication, since that approach is very performance intensive and error-prone. Instead, we work with a modern event-stream based model. We support both short-term offline workers, where the length of the offline time ranges from a few hours to a few days, and long-term offline workers, where they might be disconnected for days or weeks.

We work with two different scenarios:

For short-term offline workers, like field operations, the need for offline functionality tends to vary greatly depending on the location and the specific industry or customer segment. Therefore we’ve designed and built in both offline and sometimes connected-support by default. As a user you don’t need to think about where you are and whether you have an internet connection or not. You just use the tool and do the work. Once you get internet connection, the app will automatically sync what you have done. All your actions will be stored locally as events and when you come online they will be replayed in the order they were performed.

Short-term offline workers - sample route for a field technician showing how the connection varies (red indicates a strong connection), but no matter what, where, when, or how - we have you covered! You just perform your work and let us worry about the rest.

For long-term offline workers e.g. working on an oil-platform for weeks at a time where you need to bring large amounts of data and maybe documents offline, we have created a solution where you select the projects you want to take offline and then download all this information to a USB-stick. Why a USB-stick? In many cases you will be using a device other than the device you use when on-shore, either because you cannot or are not allowed to bring that device off-shore. By using a USB-stick we bring mobility into this scenario as well. When arriving at the oil-platform you plug the USB into the device available and run the application via the USB-stick. All actions performed will be stored as events. When you arrive back at your home base, you plug the USB-stick into your home device and sync all your performed actions to the online version.

Long-term workers - taking a project online.

SCENARIOS THAT ARE POSSIBLE IN OUR SYNC THAT ARE HARD OR IMPOSSIBLE WITH A TRADITIONAL REPLICATION METHOD:

- Long-term offline usage, for example when working on an oil-platform for weeks at a time.

- Service work that needs to be performed in locations where you have no Internet coverage.

- Work performed at construction sites, warehouses and sales lots that are large in size and where some areas will have unpredictable network coverage.

Our sync platform revolutionizes mobile M3 and creates true mobility. You can work wherever you are and you don’t have to think about whether you have an internet connection or not.

We are eCraft. We help you develop effective, efficient and competitive business processes. Your users, regardless if they are employees, customers or partners, get modern consumer-grade user experiences while management retains control and visibility into the processes.

We achieve this through a combination of expertise in cutting-edge IT technology and a deep understanding of businesses and their processes.